Unraveled Looks Back at PSX-Era RPGs Through an Indie Lens

Real events and gaming memories of the PlayStation One era are the driving force behind Unraveled, a touching RPG from a child’s perspective. Forged by indie blacksmiths, elements from both the adventure and interactive story genres will come together in this work-in-progress.

After a young girl is separated from her parents in a shipyard, her search kicks off an adventure fueled by imagination. Arriving in a fantastical world, she meets an overgrown, cuddly monster who becomes her companion. They venture together, battling monsters as players find out more about the girls’ past, more so in a “show, don’t tell” style as dialogue will be very sparse. The developer, RosePortal Games, is basing the story off real events inspired by a documentary about ship breaking, which nowadays is mostly done in under-developed countries.

Unraveled mixes RPG systems with adventuring and platforming. Players will run, jump, and climb across various environments like castles and forests. As for the combat system, it’s similar to older, turn-based Final Fantasy games. “State Balance” is a special resource system that governs the abilities characters can use. Skills in the game are either in the Calm or Anger categories, and using the corresponding one tilts the scale accordingly. Pushing the scale to the max permits usage of the strongest skills, but leaves the characters more vulnerable.

In hopes of capturing the 80s and 90s nostalgia, one of the Kickstarter tier rewards is a physical copy of the game in a PSX-style box. Pledging as little as $10 gets a DRM-free Steam key of Unraveled when it releases (estimated for November 2015). If some of the higher stretch goals are met, composers Dale North and Hiroki Kikuta (Secret of Mana, Soul Calibur V) will work on the musical score.